For more than a decade, Mr. Ackermann shaped the fortune of Deutsche Bank, which he joined in 1996 from Credit Suisse, first as head of investment banking and then as chief executive from 2002, when he shifted its focus toward becoming a global investment banking powerhouse.

He was one of Europe’s most powerful bankers, leading Germany’s biggest bank through the 2008 banking crisis without needing state aid, although in 2008 it reported the first loss in its post-World War II history, largely due to a hit taken by the investment banking operation.

In February 2009, Ackermann announced he would quit as chief executive of Deutsche Bank in 2010, only to accept a three year extension of his contract a few months later.

In July 2011, the supervisory board finally appointed two insiders, Anshu Jain, the bank’s India-born, London-based head of investment banking, and Germany head Jürgen Fitschen as co-CEOs. Mr. Ackermann was seen to be in favor of outside candidate Axel Weber, former president of the Deutsche Bundesbank, for the role

A Swiss national, during the banking and sovereign debt crises, Mr. Ackermann became a prominent adviser to governments in Germany and elsewhere on bank bailouts and on private sector involvements in rescuing Greece. He also became a regular at the World Economic Forum helped by his role of chairman of the influential Institute of International Finance international bank lobby group between 2003 and 2012.

Mr. Ackermann had been a member of Zurich Insurance’s board of directors since 2010 and was elected chairman in March 2012. Its shares fell heavily after Mr. Ackermann said he would be leaving.

Powerful, influential…but also controversial among the public.

For instance, in 2004 he was caught by photographers in a Düsseldorf courtroom showing a victory sign before facing trial over charges of breach of trust in connection with Vodafone’s takeover of Mannesmann. Though acquitted, he apologized later, as many considered the gesture as arrogant.